Dick Cheney, architect of Iraq war and Biden-era Trump critic, dies at 84

Dick Cheney, the hard-charging conservative who became one of the most powerful and polarising vice-presidents in US history and a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq, has died at age 84.

“The former vice-president died due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease,” according to a family statement released early on Tuesday.

The quietly forceful Cheney served father and son presidents, leading the armed forces as defence chief during the Persian Gulf War under George H.W. Bush before returning to public life as vice-president under Bush’s son, George W. Bush.

Cheney was, in effect, the chief operating officer of the younger Bush’s presidency. He had a hand, often a commanding one, in implementing decisions most important to the president and some of surpassing interest to himself – all while living with decades of heart disease and, post-administration, a heart transplant.

Cheney consistently defended the extraordinary tools of surveillance, detention and inquisition employed in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11.

Years after leaving office, he became a target of President Donald Trump, especially after daughter Liz Cheney became the leading Republican critic and examiner of Trump’s desperate attempts to stay in power after his election defeat and his actions in the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said in a television ad for his daughter. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward.”